Melco offloads Crown Resorts stake at 37.3 percent discount

April 29, 2020

Crown Melbourne

Melco Resorts & Entertainment has sold its remaining 9.9 percent stake in Crown Resorts to affiliates of the Blackstone Group for A$8.15 ($5.31) a share.

The price for the 67.67 million shares represents a discount of 37.3 percent to the price at which Melco bought the stake in May, 2019. Crown made the disclosure in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

CPH Holdings, a unit of Consolidated Press Holdings, announced in May last year that it had agreed to sell 19.9 percent of its shares in Crown to Melco for AS$13 a share. The acquisition was to take place in two tranches and lead to speculation that the tie up would lead to deeper collaboration between the former partners.

Subsequently to the announcement, Crown found itself at the heart of a scandal involving accusations of money laundering and other crimes related to Chinese VIPs following an investigative news report by Australian television and newspapers.

Melco in February informed Crown it didn’t intend to proceed with the acquisition of the second tranche.

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